‘The Mentalist’ season 6: Studio reportedly searching for new home

While the future of “The Mentalist” may not be set in stone just yet, the folks over at Warner Bros. TV are already doing what they can to ensure that the series finds another home even if CBS opts to not pick up the show for another season.

According to Deadline, the show’s future is not looking particularly great on the network, and this is something that has been suspected heavily ever since it was not in the major batch of renewals. CBS has to cut some weight next fall thanks to their new NFL deal, and this means fewer returning shows and also fewer new shows. Despite the fact that “The Mentalist” has performed similarly to “The Good Wife” despite airing well beyond primetime on some Sunday nights, this may not be enough to secure a renewal.

Luckily, there are options. As we told you a while back, TNT is probably the main candidate for a season 7 pickup for a number of reasons. First of all, the network already runs repeats there in syndication, and it has a parent company in Time Warner that is already tied to the show. The only thing holding it back is that the network has moved more towards serialized shows as of late with “The Last Ship” and “Falling Skies,” and may not want to move back into crime dramas (even though this one could be a perfect fit).

Another interesting option brought up by the report is ABC, given that they have lacked another sort of hit procedural to go along with “Castle.” We would not be shocked to see “The Mentalist” installed at 10:00 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday night if the network picks it up, given that they desperately need something that they could throw there that does not necessarily draw terrible ratings. However, ABC wants to see the course of their own development before making a decision.

The reports also suggests ION and WGN America as possibilities, but we see those more as stretches. One that we would be especially intrigued with, regardless of if anyone is talking about it, is Fox. While this is not exactly a show that fits what they are mostly trying to do, the network has a ton of free space with “The X Factor” ending, and it may be nice to have something solid like “Bones” that you know will at least get some numbers.

Given that we are still early in the process of figuring out the futures for these shows, we will have some more news as it becomes available. For now, just sign up if you want to get more good stuff via our CarterMatt Newsletter.

Photo: CBS